Paul M. Goldwater

Protecting the Solution: A ‘High-Tech.’ Method to Guarantee Individual Effort in Accounting Classes∗

Abstract Advocates of the case method in accounting education have provided strong arguments in favour of this classroom approach. However, a primary objection has been unanswered. Cases generate ‘canned’ solutions that, when passed between students, jeopardize the accountability of individual efforts and the educational value of the exercise. Although students have leveraged computer technology to exacerbate this problem, academic staff generally have not ‘fought fire with fire.’ This paper shows how computer technology, through the use of artificial intelligence, can restore the confidence that each student will work his/her own case solution and, therefore, will extract the intended educational value from the effort. With computer technology made to act intelligently, the case method in accounting classes should become more robust as a primary pedagogical device. *The authors are willing to share the data in this paper

Introducing uncertainty in the teaching of pensions: A simulation approach

Abstract Recent technological developments have made it possible to allow students to model probabilistic situations using electronic spreadsheets. This paper illustrates how explicitly incorporating uncertainty can add new dimensions to pension accounting. Faculty members teaching advanced financial accounting topics could use this innovation to help reorient accounting education toward skill development.

From tax computation to tax planning: the use of Monte Carlo simulations in tax education

Although many attempts to improve tax education have provided worthwhile enhancements for the classroom, few have addressed the need to train tax students in tax planning applications. Starting from the recognition that the critical parameters used by the tax practitioner are not deterministic, students can model probabilistic tax situations through simulation techniques. This paper illustrates how, using recent computerized developments, Monte Carlo simulations can make teaching advanced taxation both more realistic and more challenging. The philosophical shift that becomes possible with this technology is also consistent with recent suggestions to reorient accounting education toward active learning and skill development.

Instructor Control in an automated environment: a reconsideration with empirical evidence

Professionals can be distinguished by the degree of control they exercise over their clientele. This control enables professionals to invoke a systematic body of knowladge on behalf of those in need of these services, and serves as the basis for professional monopolies and prestige. Applied to the classroom, instructors exert control over the educational process in a variety of ways. This paper reports on the utilization of an expert system to reduce several dimentions of instructor control at a major university in the United States. It finds that the relaxation of instructor control may be a desirable means of attaining educational goals.

Increasing Student Control Through an Expert System

AbstractSeveral research innovations in accounting education illustrate the potential benefits of increased student control. Expert systems offer the potential to accomplish a transfer of control to students. Afield test of such an innovation revealed that student control could be enhanced without undesirable results. Students who were given the ability to control their study and their assessment were unable to inflate their grades beyond that which can be associated with increased effort. Students with more convenient access to the computer hardware necessary to run the expert system did not perform better.

Location does not have to be destiny: student evaluation and integrity controls in a management accounting class

As accounting education transitions to more distance-learning formats, the integrity of student evaluation continues to serve as an obstacle to adoption. Greater technological possibilities will be opposed if faculty members believe that testing is compromised. This article investigates whether students taking exams remotely (and under no surveillance) performed better than students taking exams under conventional exam security. The results suggest an equivalent degree of achievement. The lack of human-based integrity controls over students taking exams did not produce a situation where grades were no longer accurate manifestations of student abilities. Although the results may be the results of the specific testing environment that was in use, they are encouraging for the proliferation of distance education in the accounting discipline. Integrity controls can be designed into the programs that administer the assessment.

Chapter 15 Academic Integrity and Shortcuts in an Automated Management Accounting Course Management System

This chapter reports on the use of a computerized classroom system that managed practice problems, quizzes, and exams. In that the student interface was comprehensively intermediated by computerized Internet-based technology, it presents issues that would be similar to distance education. Various methods used by students to exploit the properties of the system to earn advantage and to purposefully bypass its controls are described. These include behaviors that are academically dishonorable, albeit not clearly infractions, and as well as those that are clear violations of academic integrity. This chapter uses examples from an introductory management accounting course taught at a large public university in the Southeastern United States, but could relate to coursework in any accounting subject. It is based on the many years of experience of one of the authors in trying to stay one step ahead of students through programming and system design.

The Comparative Difficulty of Professional Certification Questions in an Undergraduate Accounting Course

Abstract Unlike other business areas, the study of accounting includes preparation for certifying examinations. Because questions on these exams are available to the public, they are often used as problems in accounting textbooks. Do professional exam questions pose greater difficulty to business students than those developed specifically for the text? Past research on actual business student behavior has not offered reliable information on this issue. In this study, an expert system administered thousands of study questions to undergraduates in a management accounting class. A comparison of questions from past Certified Public Accountancy and Certified Management Accountant exams versus those specifically prepared for the textbook indicated that professional certification exam questions are more difficult. Furthermore, Certified Management Accounting exam questions pose a greater challenge than Certified Public Accounting exam questions in the managerial accounting area.

Expert System-Driven Accounting Education: A Summary of Empirical Findings on the Reduction of Professorial Control

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the expert system-driven accounting education. The computer can be used as a mechanism to empower students, and thereby substitute student control for professorial control. An expert system was constructed that essentially converted test bank materials into an inexhaustible resource for structured self-study. The expert system also administered examinations, recorded grades, and provided feedback to students. The instructor, in addition to copying the materials provided by the textbook publisher in its test bank, supplemented the total number of questions with most published professional examinations. The core processing of the expert system is the randomization of the numeric values involved in the questions computations. This program represents a qualitatively unique enhancement that preserves the integrity of the original question, and allows students a similar thought sequence in the pursuit of correct responses. The randomization greatly expands the total number of questions available, converting a constrained instructors aid into a teaching tool of immense flexibility, through the nearly instantaneous performance of thousands of computations.